Turning Tides
by deeshan
Summary: Alex has a grudge against Scorpia. They tortured him for months and now he'll stop at nothing to turn the tables on them. He wants them destroyed and he wants revenge.
1. Chapter 1

The water was filling Alex's lungs, the ice water burning his skin and his insides. He struggled and bucked and kicked to no avail. The sets of muscular arms holding him down hardly even shifted. Just as his vision was starting to go black he was ripped from out of the water.

"Ready to talk yet, Alex?"

Alex coughed up water and gasped for air. Relishing the oxygen that was filling his lungs once again. "Go. To. Hell." He wheezed, in between his loud and painful breaths.

He was unceremoniously shoved back under the water. And the pain once again consumed him.

...

Alex shot out of bed, gasping for air and clutching at his chest. He looked around the room, wildly waving a gun that he had now idea how it had even gotten into his hands. His mind quickly processed that he was at home, in his own bed, in his own room. He wasn't being tortured, he was safe.

"It's not real," he muttered to himself, bitterly. Alex hoped that he hadn't been screaming during the night to wake up Ben. Ben's room was down the hall, but he slept lightly, and seemed to sense whenever Alex had had a bad night. That's what they had both decided to call them. They weren't nightmares, or flashbacks, or PTSD, just bad nights.

Alex glanced across at his alarm clock - 6:47. _A whole four and a half hours_ , he thought sarcastically. He clambered out of bed and then made his way out into the kitchen where he could smell coffee.

* * *

"Morning, Al'!" Ben cheerfully called from where he sat at the table, reading the newspaper.

"G'mornin', Ben," Alex yawned, as he filled up a mug with coffee. "This," he said, pointing to his full mug, "is what I miss most when I'm on a mission."

"Aww Al', and here I was thinking you missed me most." Ben looked up at Alex doe-eyed.

Alex scoffed and playfully smacked Ben on the head.

"So how was your recon? We ready to roll out today? Ben asked.

Alex shoved a piece of toast in his mouth, and said, "Yep. I figured it all out last night. We're going to meet with Jones first thing today to get everyone briefed and to work out the final details, then we'll free the hostages at nightfall."

"You sound confident that your plan will work," Ben arched an eyebrow. "Do you really think it's going to be so easy as to just _free_ the hostages from Scorpia?"

"Well, we're not just going to _free_ the prisoners, we're going to destroy Scorpia's base and deliver them a major hit to their organization." Alex said fiercely.

Ben threw up his arms. "We're going to take out a Scorpia base with what - 6 hours of preparation?"

"Yes, we are! Scorpia doesn't know we're onto them! They've gone completely underground because of the huge loss we dealt them this past year. They don't know that the agents they captured have tracking devices implanted into them. We have the element of surprise, and because of that we will take them down. What other choice do we have?"

Ben sighed, "We could leave the hostages be for now, and hope our surveillance leads us to other branches of Scorpia that are still operating. It doesn't do to take out one head of the snake when there are tens maybe hundreds more that are going to pop up! And the captured agents know that, and they would gladly die if it means we can take down Scorpia once and for all."

Alex tensed, a minuscule movement, but not to Ben's watchful eye. "Ben, we _have_ to save them. We don't have a choice! Scorpia has been struggling to stay alive as of late — this will be a massive blow to them. Plus, we can get some clues as to where the rest of the organization is and then we can take them down too! We can't leave those agents there to _die._ I won't let it happen."

Ben knew better than to push it any further. He knew that Alex had been captured by Scorpia not even a year ago. He can't even imagine the burden that Alex must feel, to not let people suffer as he suffered in his 3 months of torture from Scorpia. Ben still wasn't used to the scars that littered Alex's torso and then eventually travelled to below the waistband of his pyjama bottoms. Ben pictured all of the angry red burns, and knife wounds, not to mention the now nearly unnoticeable limp that Alex still had from when he had been shot in the knee by Scorpia.

"You're right, Alex. We do have to save them."

* * *

Alex was standing a couple kilometres away from the warehouse that held Scorpia and the captured agents. Ben was by his side looking at a laptop that held the blueprints to the building, and K-Unit was standing a short distance away going over their guns and ammo one last time. It had become more and more common for K-Unit to back up Alex and Ben, as they were used to Alex's often unconventional ways of doing things, and it kept the number of people who knew Alex well to a minimum. Alex knew he could trust them with his life, and over the years they had grown into a kind of brotherhood.

"Hey, K Unit," Ben called over from where he was standing. "Let's go over this one last time."

Wolf, Snake, Eagle, and Bear all jogged over to join Alex and Ben.

Alex turned to face them. "Okay, so there are three hostages, Agents Hawthorne, Edwards, and Taylor."

Ben noticed the way Alex's eyes flashed at the name Taylor, and decided to store that information at the back of his brain for now. He knew that Alex had done the odd mission with her, but hadn't known them to be close.

"K-Unit, you're going to go in first, clear out some of the guards and try to make a clear path here, "Alex gestured to a piece of the map on the screen," through to the control room. "Ben, you're going to access any files you can on their computers to gather as much intel as possible. I will be going in through the back entrance and through to the Western side where they are most likely holding the prisoners. Our best guess is that our three agents are in one of these two hallways here. I'll get them freed and then hopefully they're in good enough condition to be able to get out on their own strength. Once we're all out, we'll blow the building and all the Scorpia agents left inside. Sound good?"

A chorus of "Yes sir," was the response.

"Oh - one last thing to remember, K-Unit," Ben added. "We need at least one Scorpia agent alive to question. Based on our research, there's a good chance Andrei Boytsov is in charge of this base, his picture was in your file. If you find him, don't kill him, he probably has the most answers to offer us."

Alex nodded in agreement. "Let's head out and hike the rest of the way to the warehouse now," he said, strapping on his bullet proof vest.

"Hey Alex," Wolf smirked, "try not to do anything _too_ moronic this time, yeah?"

"No promises," Alex called over his shoulder.

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

So there you go! This is my first fanfiction. :) I haven't yet decided if I'm going to continue it, so if you do like it then please leave me a review. How people receive the story is how I'll decide if I'll continue. Also, any constructive criticism is greatly appreciated! Let me know what I can improve on, what you like, etc.

Thanks for reading you lovely reader you!


	2. Chapter 2

Alex crept through the warehouse, sticking as closely to the wall as possible. So far no alarms had gone off, which was good. That meant K-Unit was able to take out the Scorpia agents without any of them signalling an intrusion. Alex himself, had quickly and quietly taking out guards along his way.

He was walking at a brisk pace, his gun with the silencer in his grip. He figured he should be at the West wing in about 4 minutes based on the floor plan.

"Control room secure," Ben's voice came through Alex's earpiece. "Starting download now."

Alex nodded in satisfaction, although no one was around to see him. He crept around the corner of a hallway, first checking to see if there were guards. He had taken out a half dozen guards already, but it put him on edge. He felt he should have encountered at least twice that…especially if he was nearing the prisoners. He touched his earpiece, "So far no luck on the - _augh_!"

Alex was clocked hard on his cheekbone as a guard burst through a door on his left. He stumbled onto one knee as the guard's leg was coming towards his stomach. He caught the man's leg and pushed back. The guard took a couple steps back towards the other hallway wall, giving Alex just enough time to get back onto his feet.

Alex saw the guard reaching for his radio, about to call an alarm. Alex threw himself at the guard trying desperately to catch him by surprise before he had the chance to call for backup. Alex threw a punch, clipping the man on the jaw. The guard recovered quickly and soon they were in a flurry of flying elbows, fists, and knees.

It scared Alex how good the guard was. He seemed to have advanced Scorpia training, fighting in a brutal and skilled way. Not for the first time, Alex silently thanked his own Scorpia training. He wondered how Scorpia, supposedly struggling to stay alive after Alex had bombed their home base after he had been rescued from his torture, could afford to have such highly trained guards.

Suddenly, there were alarms blaring, and two more guards were running down the hallway towards Alex and the guard he was fighting. _So he had gotten his distress call through_ , Alex realized with disdain.

"Al! Alex! Are you okay?" Ben's voice was in Alex's ear again, but he ignored him as he dodged another punch.

The other two guards had joined the fight and now Alex was being attacked from all sides. He was delivering hits as quickly as he could, but he was absorbing twice as many because he couldn't keep up with all three of the guards.

The hallway was too close of quarters for a gun, but Alex knew he was going to have to risk it if he wanted to get out of this and make it to the prisoners quickly. One guard had grabbed Alex's arms and was pulling him back as the other two guards began to deliver a vicious beating to Alex. He absorbed every blow waiting for his chance to overpower his captor.

 _Now!_ Alex suddenly went slack after a blow to his mouth, and the guard behind him lost his grip just enough for Alex to swing an elbow back, knocking the guard out cold. Alex then grabbed the gun that was in his holster and shot twice in quick succession.

The two guards dropped. Dead, with a clean hole in each of their heads.

Alex grimaced and gingerly stood up. "I'm all good Ben, just got a little held up."

"Be careful, I don't want all the paperwork that comes with if you die," Ben remarked.

"Roger that, partner."

* * *

Alex continued through the warehouse, at a much faster pace now that Scorpia already knew they were there. He wiped blood from his mouth and tried to ignore the throbbing pain coming from his face. He was going to look like hell tomorrow. He changed his tactic to shooting first asking questions later. He needed to get to the captured agents as fast as possible.

Alex turned one last corner and slowed. They should be in this hallway. He peered into the window of the first door on his left. Bingo. There was a male form curled up in the corner, with a toilet attached to one wall, and a video camera in the other corner of the room.

Alex shot the door handle, blowing it off and then burst through the door. "Agent Edwards? I'm here to get you out."

Edwards gave a sigh of relief, "I wasn't sure if anyone was going to come" he breathed.

"Are you able to walk?" Alex asked. Edwards looked a little worse for wear, and seemed to have a significant limp, but not as bad off as he could have been.

"I'm good to go, let's just get out of here," Edwards breathed. "Hawthorne is your next door on the right, he's roughed up pretty good but I think he's all right. Taylor is the room after his, she got knocked out cold maybe an hour ago, I would guess that she has a concussion, but hopefully she's conscious by now."

"That's good information, thank you. You've done great, Agent." Alex reached to his earpiece, "K-Unit, what's your ETA to the West wing? I've found the agents."

"A couple minutes, we're already on our way over," Eagle's shouted as he was running amongst gunfire.

Alex looked at Edwards, "K-Unit is on their way to help lead you out. Here's my spare gun, go free Hawthorne, and I'll get Taylor out."

Edwards grabbed the gun that Alex handed him and started towards the door on the right side of the hall. Alex made his way over to the door that Agent Taylor was behind.

Alex shot the handle off and burst through the door. The figure on the ground didn't stir. "Agent Taylor?" Alex called. He ran and kneeled next to her, taking her pulse. It was still strong and steady, she was just unconscious. Alex breathed a sigh of relief and he shook her gently. "Agent Taylor? … Emma?" He tried tentatively.

He finally just resorted to scooping her up into his arms and set off to meet Edwards and Hawthorne. Emma's hair was tickling Alex's chin and he tried not to let it distract him, but she was blurring his thoughts. Just the presence of her in his arms. Alex rolled his eyes, it was just Emma, an agent he occasionally worked with, not the bloody Queen of England.

Eagle and Bear came running around the corner toward Alex.

"Has Wolf set the charges?" Alex called.

"Explosives are ready to go!" Eagled yelled back.

Alex adjusted Emma's prone form in his arms in order to reach his earpiece. "Wolf, set the timers now."

"Timers set. Ten minutes to clear out."

"Roger." Alex responded.

Eagle put Edwards' arm around his shoulders to give him some support on his leg, and then shouted, "Let's clear out, boys!"

* * *

They had been running for five minutes and were just nearing the exit, when Emma began to stir.

"Alex," she said blearily.

"You're okay, I'm getting you out," Alex responded.

"No, Alex…"

"Shh," Alex soothed her. The doors out of the building were in his sight now.

"No, Alex!" She said more ferociously now. "Did you get the files out of the control room? They have a list of all the other Scorpia bases."

"Ben downloaded all the files they had, don't worry."

"No, no, no." She said urgently.

They were outside the base now, and Alex was running toward the helicopter that was ready to take them out. Ben and Wolf were jogging out to meet them, and Snake was inside the helicopter, readying his medical equipment.

"These are paper files," Emma said. "Scorpia was too paranoid about them to keep them digitally, so Ben won't have gotten them. I found out about them just before I was captured. Those files have all the data we need to take Scorpia down."

Alex's heart seemed to skip a beat. Ben and Wolf had just caught up with them, "Wolf, how much time is left on the bombs?"

"Four minutes, twenty-six seconds."

"Good, that's enough time," Alex said.

"Enough time for what?" Ben asked.

"Take Agent Taylor," Alex handed her off to Ben and then started sprinting back into the warehouse.

"Alex!" Ben and Wolf were both shouting after him.

Alex ignored them and continued to run high speed to where he knew the control room was.

* * *

The alarms were blaring and the lights were flashing when Alex got inside the building. He knew the control room would probably take over a minute to get to, so he would have less than two minutes to get the files once he was inside the control room.

Ben and Wolf were both yelling at him through his comm, so he flicked it off and continued running.

Alex ran around the bodies that littered the ground, and tried to remind himself that these were bad men. As if that could justify this kind of mass murder. _Not murder_ , he thought, _justice_. We do the hard things for the greater good, wasn't that the line that Jones always recited to him?

He had reached the control room. Just under three minutes until the building blew. Over to his right there was a large, reinforced, metal cabinet. There were three drawers, all locked, and all looked difficult to break open.

He shot three bullets at the top drawer and pulled. It budged, but remained closed. He shot two more bullets directly at the lock, and pulled hard a couple more times. The drawer finally gave and opened, and Alex anxiously peered inside.

It was empty.

 _You've got to be kidding me,_ Alex's mind raced. He only had time to try one more drawer, he had thirty more seconds in this room before he had to get out. He decided on the middle drawer, and shot rapidly into the lock then yanked open the drawer as fast as he could. His heart was racing as he looked inside.

There was a file. Alex released a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. He flipped open the file, making sure it was the information he was looking for. Inside, there were coordinates and floor plans of numerous buildings and locations. This was a goldmine.

Alex glanced down at his watch. One minute and seventeen seconds. He was in the control room for too long, it had taken him almost a minute and a half to get there, and now he had to get back out before the building blew. Alex tucked the file under his shirt and took off as fast as he could to get out of the building.

Alex could now see the doors in sight, and he knew that the bombs were going to go off any second. He didn't dare look down at his watch for fear of wasting time. He was running as fast as he had ever ran in his life, the doors were only eight meters away.

Now five.

Three.

One.

He bursted through the doors, hardly even believing that he had made it, when he was suddenly lifted off his feet. Heat was radiating down his back, burning his clothes, burning his skin. Alex cried out in pain as he flew through the air...and then he collided with the ground. _Hard_.

Alex's ears were ringing, he could see smoke all around him. A figure was running toward him through the fire and the smoky haze. Strong arms came underneath the small of his back and his knees and began to lift him. And then it all went black.

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

I decided to continue the story, and see where it leads me! I have a few ideas of where I want it to go, but if you have any requests I'll definitely take them into consideration. Please let me know what you like about the story, which characters you want to see more of, what you don't like, etc.

PLEASE REVIEW! I'm a writer that needs motivation that only you can give! Thanks so much to all of you who have followed, favourited, and especially the reviewers! You guys are the bestest ever.

Thanks for reading you lovely reader you!

UP NEXT: Shirtless, hospital talks? Stay tuned!


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